LONG PLAYER LATE | FRANCE

Translation: As true as the hedonic system preserves the individual and the species, listening Kip Boardman mobilizes more cognitive aspects as it provides wealth and pleasure. Fortunately for him the cursor is not success, which itself is a myth, but the love, by the way, is the only thing to ensure our survival; the love of music and beautiful work in this case.

Like hardly anyone remembers deflectors on cars or telephones, the less intelligent phones that we who remember, for example, Nick Holmes (Soulful Crooner) or Thomas Jefferson Kaye (First Grade).

Kip Boardman not only not forgot any of this, but even more sublime and transmits a little as if he had suffered a multitude of cuttings, failing to have had several lives.

Here, captured live full studio, no excess of arrangements that can atrophy, but accumulation of subtle details, mastery and absolute elegance.

In a voice that never falters, intimate and captivating Kip Boardman, with this fourth album (and the first vinyl!) Provides the music he loves, with a natural ease and nonchalance claimed, and hope you will follow ... as simple as that.

NO DEPRESSION | BOARDMAN ALBUM REVIEW

by Frank Gutch, Jr

March 26, 2015

Kip Boardman's back. I know it doesn't mean much to most of you, judging by the lack of response to his earlier albums, but it should. You missed out, plain and simple. Not that there isn't time to right your wrongs. Boardman's previous albums are still available (at least, I hope they are) and after hearing his latest, Boardman, some of you will trek back to hear them and probably wonder how you missed them the first time around.

Me, I have friends, and one of them (Justin Smith, then pounding drums for Old Californio and now Nocona) pointed me toward The Long Weight back in 2010 or so. Friends are good to have, let me tell you. The Long Weight was evidently just what I was looking for back then and I set about writing a glowing review which I am sure few, if any, read. So allow me to plagiarize myself with a few lines from that review. You see, I took a road trip expecting to hear a few albums needing review. The Long Weight was the first and never left the player.

"I should be able to give you a hundred reasons why I dig Kip," I wrote, "but I can't. As I listened, I wasn't even sure I liked the album that much but something kept me from replacing the disc and by the end of the trip, I was sold. This guy is amalgamation of so many things I have liked about music over the years and it is hard to separate them. There are bits and pieces which drew me to artists like Finnigan & Wood, Harry Nilsson, Randy Newman, and even Phillip Goodhand-Tait and Nick Holmes, whose Soulful Crooner album remains one of my real treasures to this day. (Boardman) sings with an ease which puts you at your ease and, holy crap, can the guy write!"

I go on to highlight certain of the tracks and compare them to songs by artists such as those listed above and as obscure as Ophelia Hope, a group based in Norway which put out a beauty of an album and then stepped off the musical escalator, as far as I can tell. I do not compare anyone to bands I love as much as Ophelia Hope for no reason. Trust me!

The new album is at least as good as The Long Weight. Here's what you need to know. The band is small and simple--- keyboards, two guitars (Dave Gleason and Eric Heywood, who doubles on pedal steel), bass (Rob Douglas), drums (Steve Mugalian), and Boardman, who plays the Wurlitzer piano. A Wurlitzer! I love the Wurlitzer and to hear it as pretty much the keyboard makes me happy, indeed. And in case you didn't know it (or don't know it), that is one extremely talented group of musicians. Heywood is much sought after as a session man as are all of these musicians, but I know Gleason from his own albums and songs such as “If You're Going Through Hell” and “The Rails Don't Run Here” and the much earlier but equally as impressive “Midnight, California.” The guy is a monster guitarist and a telecasting picker of note.

But back to Boardman. As on The Long Weight, Boardman serves up a very impressive string of songs, some bordering on compositions. All lyrically solid and formed to the music. Of all the tracks, the capper (“Oh The Ache”) is my favorite, though a few others did their part. “Oh the Ache” is an anthem of sorts, the kind of song bands use to finish a set--- long, driving, a bedrock on which to allow Gleason and Heywood and even Boardman to experiment, using sound chambers and tremolo to their hearts' content. If any song demand an encore, it is this one. Worth it for Heywood's pedal steel alone.

We owe thanks to Nelson Bragg for this one. He stopped by a club one night and watched Boardman and band toss these songs out to an almost empty room and was enthralled. He asked Boardman if he could do that in a studio. The rest is history. A pat on the back to Bragg and the rest of the crew. Another one to add to my Album of the Year list.

BOARDMAN PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

KIP BOARDMAN TO RELEASE: BOARDMAN ON STEEL DERRICK MUSIC.

Produced by Nelson Bragg, Percussionist/Vocalist for Brian Wilson.

BOARDMAN was Recorded Live In The Studio by Rob Campanella.

"In 2013 I saw Kip Boardman and his great band blow the doors off of a dive on the Westside of L.A. with only 15 people watching. I asked Kip if he could replicate that set in a studio with this band. He did, lead vocals included. This record is what I heard on that amazing night."

—Nelson Bragg

"His songs bear a resonant late 70's 'LA Country rock' feel that fits comfortably with his bright alto vocals…(Boardman) mines the rich musical landscapes of a distinctly American songbook reminiscent of Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb and Allen Toussaint."

—No Depression

Los Angeles, March 2015—The self-titled,Boardman is Kip Boardman's fourth studio album, and a first for Nelson Bragg's Steel Derrick Music. A longtime member of the Los Angeles music scene, and a sought after session player, Boardman has assembled an envious roster of studio and touring music veterans. Manning lead vocals and keys, Boardman once again has collaborated with Ray LaMontagne band member Eric Heywood on pedal steel and guitar, on bass is Rob Douglas (Nick Waterhouse, Apex Manor), on drums, Steve Mugalian (Dave Alvin) and B-bending master, Dave Gleason on guitar.

While Boardman is more rocking than his last effort, the halcyonic, The Long Weight, it still retains the signatures of Kip Boardman's music—wry sense of humor, a gift for melody and lyrics, which are sung in his reed-like tenor. Boardman's music is hard to pin into one genre of music. You will hear a hybrid of 70's AM rock, rootsy sounding pop and L.A. country rock. Or as Boardman, puts it, "The music I play strives for melody that gently rubs on chordal movement so elegant no one even notices…"

On this live-in-studio session recorded in the old time style of Sun Studio, Boardman kicks off with two re-recorded songs: "Running Right" from The Long Weight and "Truth And The Idiot" from the 2006 release, Hello I Must Be…which Boardman says,"…was always meant to sound more like this version." "Where Does the Night Go" is an elegant tune that features a mysterious chord shift in the main verse riff. "Holding The Bag" features some lovely lead trade-offs between Gleason and Heywood while "I’ve Got Time For You" is a peppy number that was written and arranged on the spot. "Oh The Ache" features a Wurly pedal throughout the song and is the song Boardman declares his personal favorite, "Syd Barrettish work from Gleason and stratospheric pedal steel from Heywood over a krautrock denouement with psychedelic engineering from Rob Campanella."

Originally from Marblehead, MA, Kip Boardman was drawn to the warm California sun and made his home in Los Angeles. He quickly became a stalwart member of the local L.A. roots rock royalty, playing alongside Randy Weeks, Mike Stinson, Tony Gilkyson and Ramsay Midwood. His first solo effort was the country, folk and pop-tinged, Upon The Stars in 2003, which garnered playlist status on L.A.'s KCRW that year.

Boardman will have an April 28th release on vinyl and digital only.

For more information: http://www.kipboardman.com/

http://nelsonbragg.com/

About Nelson Bragg: Nelson Bragg has been Brian Wilson's percussionist/vocalist since 2003. He also toured withThe Beach Boys 50th Anniversary Celebration, summer 2012. A veteran on the L.A. pop scene, Bragg has played/recorded with L.A. bands Stew and The Negro Problem, Seth Swirsky (The Red Button), The Quarter After, The Mockers, Wrecking Crew members Hal Blaine, Don Randi and Jerry Cole, and produced and toured Europe with Anny Celsi among countless others. He also enjoyed a spot with the The Narada Michael Walden Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and San Francisco's Davis Hall backing up Sting, Billy Joel and James Taylor among many others.

Boardman is the first record to be released from Bragg's new studio and record label, Steel Derrick Music.